I would hardly call this book "a fast paced thriller". At times, the book was downright boring. Perhaps it is one of those books that would actually be better to read, not listen to. Scott Brick is excellent, but even he needs a little more to work with than this ho hum novel. I'm sorry I wasted the book credit.

<B><U>The Amateur</U></B> is an engaging short story, by Littell's standards - see <B><U>The Company</U></B> - that is a predictable but enjoyable listen. Much of the action after Heller's plans are in motion is telegraphed during his extorted training from the CIA. If you are into vengance, there is plenty of it here, but not many surprises.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, as I did "The Company". Littell has the consistent ability to make his characters come alive and includes some interesting development of a few of the characters found in "The Company". I particularly enjoyed the very last line of this book - it made me laugh out loud. The narration by Scott Brick was, as usual, exceptional.

I finished listening to this book, but at times it was seriously aggravating to listen to the authors absolute obsession with overused detail(My opinion). Other than that the subject and content was good. I would be hesitant to listen to another book from this author if he has the same style on the rest of his books.

The further you get into this story, the more you cheer for the hero and boo the CIA. Must read or listen to for anyone at all concerned for where that country is now. Great plot and story, the characters are people you want to either hate or cheer for. Hard to stop once you have started.

This is probably heresy, but I'm tired of hearing books read by Scott Brick. I guess because I buy this genre a lot, the majority of books I have are read by him. I'm not sure this book was only three stars because of the writing, or because I get Scott Brick confused with all the other characters he's been in other books. I just listened to Solomon vs. Lord and the person who read that would be great in this genre.

Anyway, I'm having an extremely hard time finishing this book and I'm kind of tired of hearing Brick use a New York Jewish accent to suffice for Czech, Polish, Russian characters.